My first thought when I saw the Ressence Type 3 is that it’s a bit of an inception watch, a dial within a dial within a dial. Little did I know it is actually an inception watch controlled by magnets and suspended in liquid. Intrigued? I am. Here’s how it works.

At first glance, you’ll notice that the dial is curved along with the anti-reflective sapphire crystal. That’s due to Ressence using a manufacturing design boaters have been familiar with for decades. Like an analog marine dashboard compass, the dial of the Ressence Type 3 is immersed in an inert liquid which magnifies the dial and takes full advantage of its curved appearance. It almost looks like the indices and hands are part of the crystal. Quite a cool and unique effect. That alone puts the Ressence Type 3 near the top of my watch wish list.

But wait, it gets better. Unlike the SDW Hyperbarwhere the movement is immersed in fluid to better water resistance, the Type 3’s greatly modified ETA 2824-2 movement is safely and dryly ensconced between two layers of a thin titanium membrane below and above the the front and back displays. This prevents the liquid from slowly degrading themovement.

So, with no physical contact between the hands and the movement, how can the chronological info make it to the wearer? This is where the magnets come in. As opposed to the movement turning hands on a dial, the movement, secure in a Faraday cage,turns magnets which turn the indicators, telling the time. Again, so cool.

That brings me to actually telling the time. Which, is easier than it looks at first blush.The outer ring spins indicating the date. One ring in towards the center indicates the seconds. A register near the twelve o’clock position shows the minutes. You read the hourson a dial near the eight o’clock position. A final register at the four o’clock indicates the day. The more you look at the Ressence Type 3, the easier it becomes to read, even though it is definitely aninception watch. And, with each hand and index is covered in SuperLuminova,the whole watch is clearly readable in the dark

The final bit of insane innovation is the Ressence Type 3 has no crown. In fact, it has no protrusions of any kind. It certainly looks amazing, but how in blazes do you wind and set it? I‘ll let Ressence explain:

“The sapphire case back fulfills the functions of the crown with quadrants on the case back replacing different crown positions. The Type 3 is wound up by turning the case back. To change the date, it is simply necessary to make a longer rotation through 200° in order to arrive at the date quadrant. The hour is set by starting from the neutral position and turning in the direction indicated. A gravitational gearing system allows time setting to be disconnected by simply inverting the watch.”

Ressence is unveiling the Type 3 to the public at Baselworld later this month. Pricing has been set at €23,000 (about $30,000). This watch is innovative in all the right ways. It is completely unique in function and design while still actually being useful and readable. In short, the Ressence Type 3 is awesome.Formore info, check out the tech specs below.